The international network, Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), was initially formed in response to several incidents urgently requiring action in 1984, all of which related to Islam, laws and women. In Algeria, three feminists were arrested and jailed without trial, then kept incommunicado for seven months. Their crime was having discussed with other women the government's proposal to introduce a new set of laws on the family (Code de la Famille) that severely reduced women's rights in this field.

The women's movement has long been active internationally and is often considered
the exemplar of both the new social movements and a new kind of
internationalism. Yet it is difficult to find even a single theoretical article
on the historical or contemporary forms of feminist internationalism. There is,
also, limited historical or contemporary research directly on the problem. It is
therefore necessary to first ask why this might be so and then suggest how the
vacuum might be filled.